Our take on JUSTICE LEAGUE

This film has divided movie goers in a way we haven’t seen in ages. Well, not really ages, just since “Batman V Superman”. From all I’ve read, there’s no middle ground, it’s either “all in” as the marketing tagline suggests, or people are having none of it. For me, it was a fun romp that wasn’t without its small issues, but nowhere near as bad as people would have you believe.

Following the events of BvS, the world is in turmoil which prompts Steppenwolf (no, not the band) to return to Earth after years of exile to try to take over the planet with the help of three “motherboxes”. The powers of the motherboxes are never fully explained, but then again neither were the three Shankara Stones in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” so just get on board with it. In order to protect the world from this threat, Batman decides to put together a team but wouldn’t you know it, every one of them is in the middle of a crisis of confidence. And that’s before we even get to Superman! Will the heroes be able to sort their personal and interpersonal problems and save the day? What do you think?

Directed by both Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon (in reshoot mode) this film is an absolute breeze. Look, it’s not perfect, but it’s light, fun, funny, and mercifully brief at just under two hours. Each of the cast are super comfortable in their roles and the expanded characters of Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg make welcome additions to the series. Ezra Miller’s Flash low key steals the movie but Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is easily the most classically heroic person in the film. Technically speaking, there is some ropey effects and Danny Elfman’s ego trip of a score, which sees him toss most of the music from the previous films in the series, is a massive disappointment.

If nothing else, critics of the series should rejoice (but they probably won’t) at the fact that by the end, the universe gets a soft reboot and all the characters have seemingly reverted to their classic incarnations which promises a lot for future D.C. films if they decide to stay the course and not freak out and try and change the universe by using time travel or some other dodgy plot mechanization.